


Marko, you dog!

by FanFicReader01



Category: Poets of the Fall
Genre: Barko Saaresto, Crack, Dogs, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, I REGRET NOTHING, LMAO, barko, i ship everyone eventually, i think my new addiction is very clear at this point, implied jaska/olli
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-08
Updated: 2017-02-08
Packaged: 2018-09-22 21:44:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9626828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanFicReader01/pseuds/FanFicReader01
Summary: Dogs and bandmembers go very well together





	1. What happened?!

The tour had ended and everyone was tired, but satisfied. Every place they’ve visited, had rocked and welcomed them with open arms.

And now it was finally time to have a break and unwind a bit.

\----

 

Olli was backstage, packing his stuff and ticking things off from his checklist.

He was humming a cheerful tune when he got interrupted by the sound of a … bark? He looked up from his luggage and blinked a few times before he could believe his eyes. There was a dog standing in the doorway. When did a dog get inside? The dog barked but not in an aggressive way. It was more likely to be a bark for attention.

The dog seemed to be an Akita Inu. It was wagging its tail happily.

Olli smiled at the dog and gestured to come over. The Akita obeyed and let the man caress its back.

 ‘Hey, boy. Are you looking for your owner?’, Olli asked the dog.

The dog barked in reply and sat down. ‘Shall we look for your owner? I’ve packed all my stuff so I got some spare time left.’ The guitarist walked towards the door but the dog didn’t follow him.

He was surprised when the dog shook its head.  Could a dog shake its head in a way of saying “yes” or “no”?

Olli did have a dog, but he never saw his own dog _nodding_. ‘What is it, boy? You don’t wanna go?’

Again, the dog shook its head. Olli sighed. Maybe he should look for the other bandmembers. Maybe they’ve seen the owner of the dog. ‘Please, stay here? I’m going to look for your owner. Now don’t walk away. I’ll be right back!’

 

Olli wandered through the building, looking for his bandmates. Everyone he had encountered so far didn’t know about the dog or its owner.

He decided to look for Marko for he had not seen him yet. The signer was nowhere to be found and Olli got concerned. He remembered Jani was the last person he had seen Marko with.

He went to the dressing room where he found the bassist having a snack.

 ‘You’re back? Any updates on the situation?’ Jani asked.

‘Nothing. No one seems to know the dog. And I haven’t seen Marko around either. You know where he went?’, Olli answered.

 ‘I’m sorry, I have no idea. It’s been an hour already since I’ve talked to him. He said he was going to the bus. You’ve checked there already?’, Jani mumbled before he took another bite of his sandwich.

‘Yes. Didn’t spot him. Thanks anyway. I’ll look after the dog then’ Olli wanted to walk away but Jani stopped him in his track.

 ‘Can I go with you? I actually get curious about the dog’

‘Why not?’

 

When the two musicians went back to Olli’s luggage, the Akita Inu was still sitting there. The dog wagged its tail and jumped up. He greeted the two men and even jumped onto Olli’s lap when he sat down.

 ‘You haven’t seen our singer, have you?’ Jani asked the dog. He grinned. He knew the dog couldn’t probably understand him.

But to his surprise, the dog nodded a “yes”. Jani’s eyes grew wide and looked baffled. The dog barked.

‘Did he just nod at me?’ Jani looked bewildered at his friend.

‘Yes.  It shook its head at me too. When I wanted to leave. Just like the dog wants to say “no, don’t go”’ Olli explained while chuckling.

 Jani stroke his jaw as he was thinking. If the dog understood them, maybe it could lead them to Marko.

‘You know where Marko is then?’, Jani tried and the dog nodded and barked. Olli made eye contact with the dog too and asked: ‘Could you lead us to him?’

The dog responded by tilting its head a bit, seemingly confused.

‘He doesn’t understand us at all’ the guitarist mumbled disappointed. In reply, the dog made a noise. He jumped off Olli’s lap and ran away. Jani and Olli gave each other a meaningful nod and raced after the dog.

 

They ended up in Marko’s dressing room. The Akita was sitting next to the chair. Only now did Olli notice how some of Marko’s clothes were laying on the floor.

And to be precise: it were the clothes the singer was wearing an hour before he went missing.

 ‘Uh, what do you want to tell us?’ Jani stared at the clothes and then at the dog.

The animal used its nose to dig through Marko’s clothes until it had wrapped itself in the clothes.

‘You don’t say-’ Olli didn’t dare to finish his sentence. He looked over at the bassist to see if he understood.

 ‘Are you Marko?’ Jani asked in disbelief at the Akita. The dog nodded a “yes” and shook off the clothes.

The bassist hurried over to the dog and knelt down. He took the dog’s head in both hands and looked intensely into its eyes.

 ‘My god, is it really you? What happened to you?’ Jani expressed his concerns. Again the Akita nodded.

Olli grunted: ‘What are we gonna do about it? How are we going to explain this to the other members?’

Dog Marko made a whimpering noise and Jani scratched its head in a reassuring gesture.

 ‘It’s going to be fine, Marko. We’ll look after you, won’t we?’

The guitarist nodded. ‘Let’s first talk about this to the other bandmembers, shall we?’

 

After the other members and crew had been informed, everyone had to accept the very fact that their lead singer had been transformed into a dog. An adorable dog that is.

Everyone was glad they were in Finland already and that they wouldn’t have any problems at an airport. Another positive thing was that there were no gigs in the near future.

 

\---

 

Jari was drumming on the lunchbox that was in front of him. Of course he would use everything he could find to “beat” with his drumsticks.

In front of him sat Marko. He had his head leaned a bit to the left. He seemed to study the drummer.

 ‘I keep wondering if that sits comfortably’ Jari nodded at dog Marko who now barked.

‘What, you don’t like the beat?’ Jari guessed as he changed the rhythm. ‘Maybe he perceives sound differently now’ Jaska commented. The guitarist sat next to the Akita.

He patted the dog on the back and grinned. ‘Who could’ve guessed this would happen one day?’

 ‘Not me’ Jari chuckled.

‘Do you think he’ll fetch it if I threw it?’ Jari wondered as he inspected his drumsticks. Then he glared over at Marko. If he was human, he would have probably rolled his eyes.

 ‘You can try. I’m not going after it’ Jaska hold back a chuckle.

Jari shrugged his shoulders and took the risk. With a smooth swing of his arm he threw one drumstick in the air. With a smack it hit Cap’s head.

 ‘Ouch?’ the man peeked over his chair to Jari and Jaska who had burst into loud laughter.

Then Captain got another surprise. A four-footed surprise came rushing towards him. Marko jumped with great finesse over the keyboardist to take the drumstick in his mouth.

 ‘O, Marko, you dog’ Markus snorted. Marko dropped the stick and jumped onto Markus’ lap.

Playfully he licked Cap’s cheek and it incited a laughter from the man. ‘Now go take that drumstick back to where it belongs’

Marko obeyed and jumped off. He took the drumstick back into his mouth and hopped back to Jari.

‘Good boy!’ the drummer laughed and petted Marko on the head.


	2. Fun in the park

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i don't know how to title my things :S

The first week Marko spent time together with Jaska and Olli.

The two guitarists had both dogs of their own and now Marko could join them. How silly that might’ve sounded.

‘You think he’ll be doing ok with our dogs?’ Olli outed his concern.

‘I think he’ll do just fine. He might be the weird dog’ Jaska mumbled as he observed the interaction between the dogs.

It was a fact that Marko was different from the normal dogs. There were still hints from his human behavior.

 

Olli and Jaska had taken Akita Marko with them after their trip home had ended.

They went to the park with their dogs and Marko actually seemed to enjoy his time with the other dogs. He also liked to fetch the  tennis balls the guitarists threw for him.

While Jaska and Olli sat down on a bench, they let the dogs run free in the dog park and observed.

It was cold outside and they were wearing the caps and scarves Marko had knitted for them during the Clearview tour.

 ‘I think he’s having some fun’ Olli commented.

‘Yep. Tomorrow is the end of our week, huh?’ Jaska mumbled and looked at the other guitarist who nodded in reply.

Olli leaned closer to him and kissed him on the cheek. ‘Well, the end of having Marko in our midst. Hopefully Jani won’t feed him too much human food now that Marko’s body is that of a dog’, he grinned.

 


	3. Morning Helsinki

Jani didn’t have a dog of his own, although he would love to.

And now that Marko had transformed into one, his dream came true. He picked up the Akita in the morning at Olli and Jaska’s house.

 ‘Take good care of him’ Jaska had said before he left.

‘Of course, don’t you worry. I might’ve not had a dog before, but this one is special. Aren’t you?’ the bassist winked at Marko who barked cheerfully.

When Jani and Marko walked back to his car, the bassist asked: ‘In the front seat I suppose?’

The dog nodded and Jani laughed.

Jani opened the passenger door for Marko and the dog jumped onto the seat with ease.

 

‘Y’know, Marko, I’ve always wanted to have a dog. But I never found time for it. Too busy, I guess’, Jani started to talk, giving side glances at the dog from time to time.

 ‘Olli called me on the phone earlier. Said you liked to fetch stuff: tennis balls, sticks, you name it. If you want, we could that too. I’d also like to take you with me on my photo adventures.’

Marko, of course couldn’t say anything, but he wiggled with his tail.

Jani laughed: ‘That’s a good sign, I suppose!’

 

For dinner the bassist had bought special dog food for Marko.

 ‘I’m sorry, buddy. But I don’t think your dog stomach could handle human food now’ he apologized as he gave Marko his food.

Marko didn’t seem to mind however. Jani stared at the Akita as it consumed the food.

He scratched his head and started to worry a bit. What if Marko stayed like this forever? What if there would be a time that he lost his human memories and became a real dog?

 He shook his head as if he tried to shake the worrisome thoughts out of his mind.

He then grinned as he observed his situation. He was sitting in his kitchen. There was one plate of food in front of him. On the opposite side stood a bowl of dog food. And on the chair behind it sat Marko, now an Akita Inu. If he told this to someone else, they’d deemed him crazy.

He laughed. He should capture this moment.

 ‘I’ll be right back’ the man said before he left the table to grab his camera.

 

Jani spent also a week with Marko. He knew Marko knew his way around Helsinki too, but he also wanted Marko to know his favorite places. To see the Helsinki through the eyes of a photographer and his lens.

 

They went for an early ride in Jani’s car and after the musician had parked his car at the sideway of the Neitsytpolku street, they walked to the end of said street where they sat down.

The street had a nice view on the water, especially when the sun just rose.

 ‘Beautiful, isn’t it?’ Jani sighed as he took in his surroundings.

Marko replied with a small bark and pressed his snout against Jani’s elbow. The photographer took a photo and showed it at the dog.

 ‘Don’t you feel like you’re pulled into the picture? You feel invited. As if that world tries to drag you into it and let you experience it yourself’, Jani mused. He rested one hand on Marko’s head.

In the afternoon he would go to Kapu’s house.


	4. Bedtime for dogs

Markus was in his own small studio when Jani visited him.

He smiled as Marko waggled behind the bassist. ‘There you guys are!’ he greeted.

 ‘Here is the food for him. Twice a day. Morning and evening. Although I’ve given him a cookie from time to time too’ Jani explained and Kapu nodded.

‘I think I’ll be fine. Want a drink?’ Markus offered the bassist a can of beer.

The two men sat down on the couch with Marko resting between them. Kapu laughed and remarked: ‘Guess I’m having to clean more than usual.’

Dog Marko gave Kapu a meaningful look and Kapu laughed and scratched Marko behind his ears. ‘Haha, I was just kidding. Well, partly. I don’t mind cleaning more, though. But that’s only because it’s you!’

 

When it was time to go to bed, Kapu got faced with a small problem. He didn’t want Marko to sleep alone.

‘Guess I shall carry you upstairs, then?’ the man mumbled and looked at Marko who sat next to him. He was wiggling his tail like the cheerful (grown) puppy he was.

 ‘Alright, here we go’ Kapu took the dog in his arms, grunted and walked slowly upstairs. Hopefully he wouldn’t fall now, that would suck.

After Kapu had brushed his teeth and finished other sleep rituals, he went to the bedroom.

 ‘Marko!’, he exclaimed as he looked at the Akita who was now laying on the bed.

Dog Marko barked cheerfully and shook his head in a playful manner.

Kapu rolled his eyes and eventually joined the dog in the bed. ‘But you keep to that side of the bed, understood?’

 

The next morning Kapu was a bit oblivious about the whole situation. So when he woke up next to a large dog, he almost screamed like a small girl. It woke up Marko too who jumped off the bed in surprise.

 ‘Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you’ Kapu mumbled embarrassed.

 

The following days were spent at the studio of Kapu who wrote new music and experienced with some older songs.

Marko sat next to him on the couch. Whenever they were repeating one of the old songs, Marko howled along and Kapu couldn’t help himself but laugh. As long as he wouldn’t get any complaints from his neighbors, all was good.


	5. Running

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lame title alert!

The last bandmember who “had to deal” with dog Marko was the drummer.

Kapu and Jari had lunch together and when Kapu left, Marko stayed with the youngest band member.

Jari gave Marko a dog cookie before they went to the man’s home.

 ‘I’ve collected some real sticks in the park a few days ago. So you won’t be needing my drum sticks for that’ he explained on their way home.

 ‘There’s just one thing I might’ve told you before’ Jari said as they stood by his frontdoor.

‘I own a cat. I don’t think you are the problem, but she isn’t so fond of dogs’ Jari arched his eyebrows in concern.

 ‘I’m home!’ Jari greeted his cat but she was nowhere to be seen. ‘She might sit on the balcony’ the drummer mumbled and then he showed Marko around.

 Jari’s home was not too big, but it was very cozy. There was an actual drum kit in his living room and it almost took all the space there.

 Jari went looking for his cat in the garden while Marko was nosing about in the living room.

 

The drummer got alarmed when he heard a sad howl coming from inside. He rushed to the door and in in the kitchen he found his cat and Marko.

 ‘Tiger! Don’t! Leave him alone’ Jari yelled concerned as he tried to shoo his cat away from a frightened Marko.

 Apparently the cat had scratched Marko’s nose.

Jari knelt down by the dog and inspected the nose. ‘I’m sorry that you had to meet her like this, Marko. Let me help you’ the drummer apologized.

 He took a new towel from the cupboard and put some water on it. He then proceeded to carefully dab the wetted cloth on Marko’s nose.

 ‘There ye go’ Jari smiled and patted him on his head.

The same evening Marko joined the drummer at the couch as he was watching some music program on television.

Every now and then the man threw a small dog cookie at Marko, who caught the cookie happily.

It was only fair, for Jari himself was having a snack as well.

 

‘Say, Marko, are you up to train with me today?’ Jari asked the Akita the next morning.

Marko barked joyfully and the two of them went to the fitness hall.

 Jari had to take Marko on a leash however when they wanted to enter the hall.

‘I know you could walk without it, but otherwise we can’t get in’ Jari apologized and Marko nodded like he understood.

 When they finally got inside, Jari went for the treadmills.

He gave Marko a doubtful look and asked him if he would be able to run on it too. The dog expressed a confirming bark and was already standing in front of one of the treadmills.

 ‘I’ll start slowly’ Jari promised as he set the device in its lowest acceleration.

At first Marko seemed to be a bit wobbly on the treadmill. Soon he got the hang of it and Jari used the treadmill next to the dog.

After some time the Akita made a noise and Jari wondered if Marko was tired. But it was quite the opposite.

The dog nodded at the controller. ‘You want me to speed it up?’ The animal nodded a “yes”.

 

Jari and Marko spent a lot of time at Jari’s home.

The drummer was found behind his drum kit or in the garden, throwing sticks for Marko.

And every morning they would go to the fitness together. Jari was thinking about giving up, because Marko outrun him. Even as a human the man had more energy in him than Jari could possibly imagine. Now that Marko was a dog, his stamina seemed to be multiplied by a dozen.

During the evenings the two spent time together on the couch, watching TV.

Jari liked to feed him small snacks and he once joked that Marko would be fat by the time he turned into a human again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, well, that was the last band member !  
> Rip Marko's nose :P JK, it was only a small scratch. don't you worry


	6. Four weeks later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally the story comes to an end!

Four weeks had passed since Marko’s sudden transformation. The whole band met again at their headquarters for further evaluation.

 

Markus, Jari and Jaska had installed themselves on the couch and Marko had settled himself on their lap.

 ‘So, what are we going to do about this problem?’ Kapu started the conversation.

Jari shrugged his shoulders as he was stroking the fur of the Akita’s back.

 ‘Hehe, I don’t mind. I can hardly see the difference anyway’ Jaska joked. He winked at Marko.

The dog opened his mouth and to everyone’s surprise there were actually words coming from its mouth. ‘I can still hear and understand you, Jaska.’

Marko seemed to bewildered too as his eyes grew bigger. All of the bandmembers had to laugh.

 ‘Still gotta do something though. This can’t go on forever. We’re already into the next month’ Kapu scratched his head as he tried to solve the puzzle.

 ‘Do you remember anything before or immediately after the transformation?’ Olli asked. The singer nodded.

 ‘I don’t remember anything. Oh wait, I do. I was chatting with Jani and-’

‘Whoa, whoa! I have nothing to do with the incident! Are you implying I did something?’ Jani exclaimed but his face said he was joking.

 ‘And, may I continue, then I went to the bus to take some supplies. I went back to my dressing room and felt a bit nauseous. Before I knew it, I woke up with a tail and fur’, Marko continued.

 ‘Hm, this is indeed troublesome if we don’t know the source’ Jari mumbled.

‘And I guess we can’t just go to the doc with him?’ the blond guitarist muttered. Everyone sat there with a frown on their heads.

 ‘Marko, are you feeling new changes?’ Kapu wanted to know. Marko crawled off the three men’s laps, followed by some grunts.

He now sat next to the two guitarists.

 ‘Well, seems like I have my speech back. But I did feel a bit like a real dog, sometimes. Like running behind thrown objects? That was a reflex. I liked it though’ Marko scratched himself behind his ear with his paw.

 ‘Maybe if we pray to the Jealous Gods, they might give me my old body back’ the singer joked.

 

The bandmembers were tired of all the thinking and not having a solution. They decided to lunch and discuss the problem again after they’d filled their stomachs.

 

During the lunch Jani noticed how Marko had sneaked away from the table he was lying under.

‘Has anyone seen Marko?’ he asked.

The other men shook their heads. Jani sighed and decided to go look for the singer.

  He shouted the other man’s name many times but there was no response. Did he search everywhere?

Jani’s search ended in the restroom. He found the singer stark naked on the floor. He seemed to be sleeping. He didn’t want to wake him up.

Instead, he went to look for some spare clothes.

 

Jani reappeared in the lunch room and asked the others: ‘Hey, you’ve got some spare clothes laying around here?’

The others seemed confused. Then Olli was grinning this wide smile and gestured with his head at Jani to look behind him.

 ‘Oh, hey! Marko! I was trying to look for some clothes’ a blush appeared on Jani’s face as well on Marko’s.

 ‘Don’t you worry, guys. The good _Captain_ is here with a towel’ Kapu stood up from his chair and threw Marko a towel to cover himself with.

There was some chuckling from the other bandmates before everyone focused back on their food.

 Marko placed himself next to Jaska and peeked at the man’s sandwich.

‘You’re still eating that?’ he asked. ‘Marko, you dog! You’ll have to wait until we’re done’ Jaska jokingly snorted and he received a friendly push from the singer.

 ‘There’s still a sandwich left here’ Jari said who was following the banter between guitarist and singer.

‘I got a tomato’ Olli said. ‘Throw it’ Marko dared. ‘I’ll catch it.’

Olli rolled his eyes but threw the tomato at Marko anyway. The singer caught the tomato and grinned.

‘Still got the dog reflex’ he smirked.

Meanwhile Jani had finally found an XXL shirt which he gave to Marko. ‘This should cover it all’ he said with a wink and the singer thanked him.

 ‘You know, I miss the silence’ Jari declared and gave Marko a teasing look.

‘Yeah, me too. And I will miss petting your warm coat’ Olli added with a smile. Marko rolled his eyes and replied: ‘If you want, you can still pet me. I think I will miss some things too.’

 ‘Like what?’ Kapu grinned.

‘Well, first of all, sitting on your lap. It was very comfortable’ the singer answered.

Jaska snorted: ‘Hehe. Let me tell you, you can still do that. Guess you’re less heavy in human form anyway.’

 ‘It was pretty fun nevertheless. I mean, it was silly at some times, but I enjoyed it’ Jari admitted.

The others unanimously agreed with the drummer’s statement.

Marko grinned and nodded. ‘Well, at least we can finally get back to the real work again’

Everyone groaned in response and then they all burst into laughter.

 


End file.
